Montreal Tech Watch

CallerCenter, a new site just recently launched, offers visitors to collect their feedback and complaints on fraudulent phone numbers, for example from random telemarketing companies or other annoying callers. The site also saves in its database the number of times a phone number has been searched. After saving a complaint, users also have the option to report the number to the FCC, or other helpful organizations. In this example for instance, there’s apparently an impersonation of the Chase banks, with the scammer asking for the user’s PIN over the phone, which is clearly an issue.

CallerCenter is made by one local Notman residant, with a business model based on advertising. Apparently, it’s a huge audience, with lots of people getting bugged in North America and wondering about calls they get. A service like CallerCenter would allow them to show right away if it’s a scam or not, similar to what the Google spam team is already doing with fraudulent domain names. I imagine the site’s value would be also huge if it could give us ratings for our phone numbers (a crazy concept, but if we’re using a single phone number, why not associate our identity to that phone)